Blair William & Co. IL Buys 5,965 Shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX)

Blair William & Co. IL increased its position in shares of Mplx Lp (NYSE:MPLX - Free Report) by 47.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 18,520 shares of the pipeline company's stock after buying an additional 5,965 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL's holdings in Mplx were worth $886,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MPLX. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Mplx during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Mplx by 56.3% in the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,135 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 409 shares in the last quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new position in Mplx in the 4th quarter worth about $56,000. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Mplx during the 4th quarter worth approximately $98,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its position in shares of Mplx by 25.1% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,576 shares of the pipeline company's stock valued at $134,000 after buying an additional 517 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.25% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Mplx

In other news, VP Shawn M. Lyon acquired 4,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $52.75 per share, for a total transaction of $211,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 25,299 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,334,522.25. The trade was a 18.78 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MPLX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Mplx from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Mplx from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays upped their target price on Mplx from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Mplx from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Mplx from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Sunday, March 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Mplx has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $54.00.

Mplx Stock Performance

Shares of Mplx stock traded down $0.41 on Tuesday, hitting $46.81. 2,800,919 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,809,520. Mplx Lp has a 1 year low of $39.56 and a 1 year high of $54.87. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.86 billion, a PE ratio of 11.12, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.11.

Mplx (NYSE:MPLX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The pipeline company reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.03. Mplx had a net margin of 36.18% and a return on equity of 31.94%. The company had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.10 EPS. Mplx's quarterly revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Mplx Lp will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Mplx Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.9565 dividend. This represents a $3.83 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.17%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. Mplx's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 90.74%.

Mplx Company Profile

MPLX LP engages in the operation of midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets, and distribution fuels services. It operates through the Logistics and Storage (L&S) and Gathering and Processing (G&P) segments. The Logistics and Storage segment transports, stores, distributes, and markets crude oil, asphalt, refined petroleum products, and water.